What is Washboard Express?

Washboard Express is a way for me to express my own opinions, to be a provocative gadfly, by writing a "letter a day" to the President. I may miss a day here and there, because sometimes my family with be my first priority, but my goal is to write a total of 365 letters, representing one full year. To say I have opinions about most things would be to understate the obvious. Those of you that know me, know this is true, those who don't know me, will learn that it's true. The Washboard is a reference to going back to basics and "keeping it clean," so if you would like me to post your comments or opinions on this blog, I only ask that you be respectful. So go ahead, express yourself, and I look forward to an exchange of ideas and opinions.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Day 97...Dear Mr. President... mired in a cesspool of mass incivility

Day 97

Dear Mr. President,

On a recent trip to Germany, Pope Benedict at one point while addressing the crowd, called for spiritual renewal among the people. That got me thinking about what that really means, and what I think is really missing in the public arena. Good Manners.

How can we, as a people, achieve any kind of spiritual renewal if we lack basic manners? We see it day after day, on the news, in the papers, and especially on the web… people posting all sorts of rude things on Facebook and Twitter. Then like ripples on the water after a pebble is dropped, those rude comments generate even more… and so it goes on and on until we’re all mired in a cesspool of mass incivility.

You know what that’s like Mr. President… you experienced it when Rep. Joe Wilson yelled out “You Lie!” in 2009 while you were addressing Congress. That was not only disrespectful, but, exceedingly rude.

Recently while working on her reality series, Bristol Palin was verbally attacked because someone doesn’t like her mother, Sarah Palin. He shouted obscenities at a young woman who has absolutely no responsibility for things her mother says or believes. But for some reason that young man thought he had the right to berate Ms. Palin while she was out doing her job. While I am certainly no fan of Sarah Palin’s politics or beliefs, it is totally unacceptable to take it out on her daughter.

Even within my extended family, there are bouts of incivility. My nephew recently posted on his FB wall… “Apparently I’m rude! HA!”To which I replied, “I find that nearly impossible to believe… I know who raised you, and I know who raised her…LOL” meaning… I know you have manners. I’ve never known him to be rude, and my guess is that he wasn’t actually rude, but someone took it that way.

You’d think that would have been the end, but a few days later his sister pops in with her own comment directed at me… “I find it funny Gadfly Granny made such a comment… considering we all know how wonderful she treats people.” To which I replied, “How would you know Jess, since you unfriended me a couple of years ago because I didn’t appreciate your “rude” and profane posts.” (posts that would appear on my wall from time to time) At that point she told me I was “…nosy and mean” and that she was “tired of me giving her family a hard time yet again…” Really… I was essentially telling her brother that I didn’t believe he was rude, and his sister thought that I was rude and nosy… sometimes you just can’t win.

So you see Mr. President how quickly civility unravels even in families. See how one little pebble dropped innocently into to pond can become a tsunami… and so it goes on all around us. In the long run, it’s not a spiritual renewal we need, it’s a lesson in manners and a return to civility that we all need, myself included.

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About Me

Having just retired after 15 years in magazine publishing, I thought I would venture into the wide world of Blogging. In my 66 years I've gained some insight about a few things. Most are silly observations about life in general. Some are serious, involving politics, and what I perceive to be right and wrong. My goal is to be somewhat of a gadfly, so if I goad you one way or the other, I've accomplished my goal.